Million-dollar student hits the big time with a simple idea

A first-year student who launched a business selling tiny chunks of advertising space on a website is on the brink of making $1m from the project.

Alex Tew, 21, of Cricklade, Wiltshire, sold the first spot on his Million Dollar Homepage at the end of August. Four months on the idea has taken the internet by storm, attracted the attention of big business, and made Alex richer than he hoped for in his wildest dreams.

The concept came to Alex on a sticky summer's night as he mulled over getting through college without amassing huge debts. Working in a fast-food restaurant to make ends meet was not really his style. So he jotted ideas on a pad until the Million Dollar Homepage leapt out at him.

Like all great concepts the idea is simplicity itself. The homepage is divided into 10,000 boxes, each made up of 100 pixels.

Companies or individuals are invited to buy one or more box for $100 each - $1 a pixel - and cover it with a logo. When a websurfer clicks on the logo he is transported to the company or person's website.

Alex planned to try to sell all one million pixels, earning himself a cool $1m (£568,000), in the three years of his career at Nottingham University, where he is studying business management. "I aimed high but really I was thinking that if I made just a small percentage of what I was going for I'd have done OK," he said.

In the first few days he sold a few hundred pixels here and there, mainly to friends and relatives, but within weeks the site was a huge talking point on the internet. A range of businesses from a big international phone company and media companies to small businesses offering dating services or computer games have signed up.

Companies, many of which only signed up for a bit of fun, have been amazed at how many people have been directed to their businesses from the site. Alex was feted when he went on tour in America, and hundreds of imitation sites have sprung up.

On average 7,500 pixels a day are sold - so Alex could be a dollar millionaire in early January. He has not been tempted to fritter his cash away. His only luxury buy so far has been a new Mini.

"I'm not going to do anything silly," he said. "I know how quickly the money could disappear. It's hard to believe what happened. The site's success is a real testament to the massive power of the internet."

And his next idea? He has a few stored away but, for the moment, understandably, he is not saying.